AgriLand paid a visit to Co. Tipperary – to see how Prendergast Agri (based near Golden) is faring with its New Holland FR780 – the third FR Series forager the contractors have run.
John W Anderson spoke to William Prendergast – the son of Tommy, who founded the business – to get a real-life opinion from the man on the seat.
William told us: “This is our first season with the FR780; earlier in the year we picked up [grass] silage with it and we’ve found it very reliable.
We find it has good fuel economy, even compared to our last harvester – an FR600.
“This machine [the FR780] has cruise control; it’ll adapt to the inflow of the crop and will adjust its speed accordingly.”
He also singled out the machine’s ability to easily switch from grass to maize (and vice versa), which has proven especially useful this year.
He explained: “You can just move the transition channel at the back and put in the rollers [corn cracker].”
William said: “The FX was harder to service. When you were putting in the rollers [corn cracker], it was a more difficult job.
“With this [FR780] you can just lift the rollers in with a crane.”
He added: “The FR780 has the new-type cab; all the controls are very user-friendly; they’re very comfortable; they’re all at your fingertips – everything you need.”
He went on to say: “At the very start of the season, the [grass] crops were very heavy; the machine ran really well at this. During the year, crops got a lot lighter.
The crops also got very dry, but the harvester still had a great blow out of the chute.
During our visit, William was operating the machine with a New Holland six-row (maize) header up front.
He noted: “This machine would be well capable of running up to a 10-row header. We like the New Holland header; it takes in the crop very easily.”